Back to the Future

In lieu of something more serious, which I'm still mulling over in my mind, I present another one of my Christmas gifts -- an old-school headset for your cell phone. I absolutely love it, although I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. I imagine it will be very useful if I am forced to spend a lot of time on hold with some stupid company. Much easier to hold under your head and use both hands for something else than a cell phone. Heck, I ought to just have one of my daughters call me just so I can try it out.

The box proclaimed it to be both retro and trendy. I mean, I guess retro is currently trendy, but then the "style" has been to recycle stuff from both the seventies and the eighties for quite a while now, years actually. Behold this preppy folder from 2006, with adorable little whales all over it. Currently, day-glo is back in style. When will they start recycling stuff that has been recycled from the seventies and eighties, tweaking it just the slightest bit again?

Projects

I think I've mentioned before that my attention span is something akin to a toddler's. I also need to have more than one thing going on. I have an awfully hard time getting projects done. I generally only knit, for example, while the Dancer is in one of her classes, because I can multi-task. Watching the Dancer, listening to the music and knitting occupies all of my mind. Just sitting and knitting would bore me immensely. I have two projects I ought to get done before the Easter weekend, as they are birthday gifts that are already rather belated. It just occurred to me the other day that I should make myself a case for my glasses. I have to take them off when I am doing anything close up. Isn't that the opposite of what is normal? Anyway, a case would give me someplace safe to put them. I don't like to just stick them in my purse where my keys and so forth are.

I also do better even at household chores when I have music to listen to. I'm so thankful for satellite radio. It's not that expensive, and I can listen to it on my phone. It is hard to pick up radio stations out here, even though we're definitely part of metro Cleveland. And talk radio, you guessed it, bores me. Plus, the quality of "old school" radio is decreasing. Like so many other things, there is less offered for what I'd imagine is the same amount or more in advertising intake.

Speaking of music, I find it funny and heart-warming that the girls like older music and not just the current pop stuff. The Musician likes AC/DC and GNR, and we can rock out together to "Don't Stop Believing." The Dancer is singing "Footloose" as part of her school concert, so she's all "Been workin', so hard, I'm punchin', my card." It's nice to have things that bring us together. :)

The List Keeps Growing

It seems to me that people used to get together most often in winter during olden times, and barely saw each other in the summer. I imagine that was due, at least at first, to all the farm work necessary in summer, and later, to the Victorian/Edwardian propensity for going to the country in the summer. Now it seems that people hibernate during the winter, at least after Christmas, and do all kinds of things during the summer, at least in the greater Cleveland area where the winter can be long and tough and the early and late summer can be very pleasant.

Tomorrow a fellow church member is having a garage sale to raise money for a youth group trip. I would have liked to be there today so the Equestrienne could help get things ready, but she has school to do, and I am still not feeling one hundred percent. Not only do we have the garage sale tomorrow, but one of the Dancer's friends is having her end-of-year recital right in the middle of the afternoon.

Tonight the Equestrienne is going to a birthday party, with an 80's theme. What fun! I remember years and years ago some girl saying she dreaded having her daughter come home and tell her that tomorrow was 80's day at school. It's the circle of life!

Next Saturday is a work day at church, for which we will not be able to stay very long, because we are going to an Indians game with a tailgate party beforehand. It's a birthday get-together for a local geocacher.

Here's a picture of the Equestrienne from last weekend, which was a busy one also. I really do wish there were close to as many activities in the winter as there are in the summer! Winter is when I am at my bluest and need human interaction!

For All of You Who Lived Through the 80's

My husband and I spent about fifteen minutes perusing the pictures here and being incredulous at what they considered mullets. Darth Vader's helmet? Um, I totally don't think so. Male pattern baldness? You don't have a mullet.

And by the way, keep this in mind.

Contest!

My friend is having a contest to show off the cool new purses she is making. Go find out how you might be able to win one! Or just cross your fingers for me! :)

You know, I remember when purses made out of placemats used to be the cool thing, back in the 80's. Does anyone else remember that? I wonder where my old one got to?

Talking about contests, the first game of the double-header between the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles was no contest. The Rangers won, 30-3!! That's the most runs scored in a game in 110 years. Ouch!

Partyin' Like It's 1989

Last night I was out at the Boneyard in Broadview Heights to watch The Quipper and his fellow band members in Running in Circles. Last night was a sort of birthday celebration for The Quipper as well; he is celebrating his mmmmph birthday. There were even brownies with chocolate chips, which makes a party anywhere. And yes, Running in Circles did play some "music of today," but what really got people out on the dance floor was the older tunes. That, and large amounts of alcohol.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Yes, it's sweltering hot outside. Yes, we're all miserable and melting and praying the power grid doesn't go down so we can keep our fans and air conditioners running. But I was inspired by a local radio station, which is periodically playing winter songs, such as "Frosty the Snowman," during commercial breaks, to share this picture with you.

By the way, the station is WEOL, 930 AM on your radio dial. It comes out of Lorain/Elyria, and it plays Glenn Beck from 9 to 12 every weekday. Maybe some of you that can't pick up 610 to hear Herr Beck could get this station??

Lastly, although I don't think there are a lot of former wanna-be preppies out there, I had to share this folder I found with you! It's like, so totally cool, I said "Fer sure!" If you go to their web site and find the items in their "Prep Cool" collection, you can see the rest of this gnarly set, but their website design is poor (in my opinion) and does not allow you to link directly to a collection.

Totally 80's

Yeah! The "prairie look" is back! See here, here and here. Oh, how I loved my Gunne Sax clothes when I was in eighth grade! If I had any pictures I could put on line, I'd even be bold enough to share some with you! My daughters are using one of my old "prairie skirts" for dress-up; maybe I'll get a picture of one of them in it.

Did anyone else (of the right age ;)) love the prairie look? The ruffles, the puffed sleeves, the pretty calico prints, the quilted jackets? I've been buying old Gunne Sax patterns in kids' sizes when I can, so I can reproduce that look for my daughters. Well, I guess it will just have to be for Wildchild, who would live in skirts. The Scientist wears skirts reluctantly for special occasions and likes them very streamlined. One out of two isn't bad!

Like, Totally Cool

I just, like, wanted to share this picture of my youngest daughter, henceforth to be known on this blog as WildChild. She put the whole outfit together herself, including hairdo, when she got dressed in the morning. I had to take a picture as I found it reminiscent of that golden era of the 80's. Anyone else think so? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?

Today was the first humid and "sticky" day this year, and I ended up spending a good bit of the afternoon feeling dizzy and nauseous. Still, there were some good things today. My eldest daughter, henceforth to be known on this blog as the Scientist, had Latin class. That was enjoyable as usual. Discussion ranged from the history of the Cymry to the Punic Wars. We did miss the regular presence of some of the members of the Homestead Lutheran Academy, who only arrived at the very end due to other obligations.

The girls also got to spend time with some of their other friends, and I got to spend time with a mom friend (yay!) and lunch with the whole gang and my husband at my husband's place of employ, which has a kickin' cafeteria. Then we came home and WildChild and I had NailPolishPalooza with our new nail polish I just got today. For all that she is a bundle of energy, activity and mischief (hence the nickname WildChild) she is also very much a girly-girl. I enjoy sharing this with her, as I am a girly-girl as well. It's interesting to see how so many of my husband's and my traits, personality quirks and yes, flaws, are coming out in our children, in so many different ways. It's like our traits were put together in a jar, shaken up, and distributed randomly to our daughters! Well, one of the joys of being a parent is discovering the personality behind that cute baby face!